21.3.12

Springtime in Philadelphia

I went to my first professional conference (go librarians!) in Philadelphia (my first time in Philly) last week and had a wonderful time. I was a little anxious about being out of my element at a conference for a profession that I don't fully call my own yet, but all in all, I had a great time. It helped that my hotel room was spacious with a beautiful view, that mouth-watering food could be found around every corner, and that spring was blooming in the city.

This was the view of Broad Street from my hotel room:
 [Lucky me got a corner room!]

When I wasn't mingling with librarians, I spent a lot of time at the Reading Terminal Market, which was (much to my delight) right across the street from the convention center. I wish something like Reading existed in San Diego! There were so many delicious treats--flowers, candies, cheese steaks, pretzels (oh the pretzels--I've never had such a good pretzel!), cupcakes, vegetables, meat, jams and jellies, coffee--loved it all. Did I mention the pretzels?

The Market is indoors and has rows (or "avenues") of vendors, like this one:

I was particularly lured in by the sweets: 
 [CANDY AND CHOCOLATES! Where do I even start??]

 


These sticky buns at Beiler's Bakery were also incredible--sticky and sweet and made right in front of us.


And the flowers were beautiful! While I was there, the east coast was having a heat wave while San Diego was rainy and frigid. Craziness.
 
 

And finally, I cheated. I didn't actually eat a cheese steak, but instead had this roast pork sandwich from DiNic's, complete with sharp provolone and broccoli rabe. YUM.

To work off a fraction of the food I just showed you, I ran from my hotel all the way up the steps of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, a la Rocky Balboa.
[Watch out half marathon! I'm comin' for you!]

I did a good amount of career soul searching while I was there, but was happy to have had breaks to eat, smell the flowers, and pump my fists up the steps of the museum.

Philadelphia, what a wonderful city.
Moo

5 comments:

Jess said...

I would love to visit Philadelphia! And I'll gladly take some of those sticky buns and the chocolate with the M&M's on top! Yum!!!!

punkychewster said...

omg beautiful pictures Mo!! I love the red tulips! And what do you do at a librarians' conference? That is WHAT i want to know.

The Less Than Domestic Goddess said...

Wow, what an amazing trip! Now I'm starving. :) Thanks for sharing, Mo! Best of luck with your marathon training. That's exciting!

Mo said...

Thanks ladies!

@punkychewster: I imagine it being similar to other professional conferences, except a lot more cats and knitting! (I kid...sort of!) You get to network and talk and share ideas, and there are loads of educational sessions about programming and other fun ways to get people to the library, and then there are a million vendors all trying to sell you things. The great thing about the conference was the BOOKS. Free, advanced reader copies of books! It was a biblio-information-community-phile's paradise.

Terese said...

that market looks incredible. hope you're running is going well!

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